Garage Sale Craft Table

I am not a garage saler. Mostly because I'm trying to purge my house of junk, not add to it.  But, I was feeling crafty and on the look-out for something I could spray paint into usefulness and beauty. Even though I'm terrible about that sort of thing. Seriously, my vision and ideas are so much better than my ability to carry out said vision.

I'm trying to accept that.

Anyway, I found this coffee table for $5 at a house across from my Y. It was insanely heavy but I managed to get it into the van and then out of the van onto my driveway without smashing my toes. My gosh that was a miracle.

We picked up chalk board paint, and blue spray paint. I kind of primed, but not well, which is probably why the paint flakes off if you bump into it? Oh well. Every time I muttered curse words at my failures in perfectionism, Ben reminded me that I was painting it so small people with no real artistic ability could paint and draw on it. 

And so I pressed on. I spent about 45 minutes trying to find the center of the table so I could make a circle in the middle of the table. Something about drawing lines and the point of intersection? Whatever I was doing wasn't working, and I was quickly digressing into tears and curses. So, I decided to just paint the whole top chalkboard. Have you ever tried to tape off a circle? What in the world? How do you do that? More tears and curses, and reminders for Ben about children coloring on it.

I wanted a paper tray mounted on the bottom of the table for the kids so they would stop asking me for paper ever 4 seconds. My solution was to duck tape a cardboard box to the bottom of the table to avoid having to ask for help. When Ben saw that contraption, he got out the scrap wood and made a more durable version of a paper tray. We mounted a paper towel holder too, to encourage the aforementioned small people to clean up their own messes.

Next, I invaded Ben's collection of glass jars, scrubbed them up, and made them utensil holders. (I had visions of modpodging cute paper to them... maybe someday?). Seriously, Ben has this obsession with keeping glass jars just in case we need them. Don't tell him, but once the shelf got full, I started chucking them in the recycling bin. Now that I used some, I'll start replacing them. 

So, I'm guessing I spent....$5 on the table, $10 on paint and primer, $5 on tape, $2 on paper towel holder, and $6 on the lazy susan.  

Thirty of the best parenting dollars I've ever spent. It was fun to make, and my kids love it. When they wake up in the morning, instead of waking me up, they "do art." They lock themselves in that room (door has to stay closed now because glass jars full of markers are no match for Charlie) and "do art" all day long. Sure, we've killed about 40 trees with the paper they've gone through, but those trees have my deepest gratitude for the peace and quiet that has ensued around here.

Oh and PS - I've been a little obsessed with my glue gun this past week, so stay tuned for more far-from-perfect crafty endeavors and failures.

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